Brian Wheeler,Political reporter and
Joshua Nevett,Political reporter
PA Media
Chinese state operatives present a daily national security threat to the UK, the head of MI5 Sir Ken McCallum has said.
In a speech, he said MI5 had intervened operationally to disrupt Chinese activity of national security concern in the past week.
Addressing a row over the collapse of a case involving alleged spying on behalf of China in the UK, Sir Ken said the alleged activity was disrupted by MI5 and that it was “frustrating when prosecutions fall through”.
The government and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) are facing questions over the collapse of the case.
The CPS dropped the case last month after deciding the evidence did not show China was a threat to national security.
But witness statements from the UK’s deputy national security adviser Matthew Collins – published late on Wednesday – are clear that the Chinese are carrying out spying operations against the UK.
In the documents, he said China was carrying out “large scale espionage” against the UK and was “the biggest state-based threat to the country’s economic security”.
Sir Ken described Mr Collins as a “man of high integrity and a professional of considerable quality”.
In his speech, Sir Ken said “Chinese state actors” presented a threat to UK national security but added that the “overall balance” of the UK’s relationship with China was “a matter for the government”.
“When it comes to China, the UK needs to defend itself resolutely against threats and seize the opportunities that demonstrably serve our nation,” he said.
The Conservatives have accused the government of allowing the spy case to collapse to avoid jeopardising economic relations with China.
Downing Street said it would have been “absurd” for the PM to step in last month after being told the case was going to collapse, stressing it was a “criminal matter” for the CPS to handle independently.
In a letter to the prime minister, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the events leave “a strong impression that your government undermined Britain’s national security because you are too weak to do anything other than appease China”.
In his reply, Sir Keir argued that the prosecution’s case relied on the then Conservative government’s policy towards China at the time of the alleged offences, between 2021 and 2023.
“In other words, the prosecution’s case required demonstrating that the position of the then Conservative government was that China was an enemy of the United Kingdom,” he said, and it was “plainly wrong” to suggest that had been Tory policy.
The head of the CPS Stephen Parkinson is also in the firing line, with MPs suggesting there was
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